You should avoid people who promise too much, like independent "game designers" who want you to work for free on their "idea". It's not going to happen. Never join a project that doesn't have gameplay in place, if they just have ideas and haven't tried implementing gameplay yet, it's a shit project.

What major's are best for which part of the industry?
That's a really broad questions, for video-games you've got HR-people, you've got artists, concept artists, 3d artists , we got writers, we got cg-people, sound people (musicians and sound effects) different types of programmers, producers, directors etc etc.

As long as you're good at what you do, you can apply to a game-company, you never know what positions they have open. You could be the community manager, taking care of the forums and making sure people are happy and get their questions answered. You can create kickass music that'll end up in the game. Etc etc.

So pick the major you're interested in and use that knowledge to transform it to something game-related. Ie wrote the story and the dialogue for this mod, or did the music etc etc.

What are the work conditions like?
Depends on what company you work at, but generally companies that are not too big have a really nice environment to work in. If you got 3000 people working in the same building you also have the security measures that comes with it. At some companies people just come in, put their heads down, do the work and go home.

And some companies are like playgrounds, we laugh, we play video-games and we create awesome for you guys to play. These places are golden.

How much information are you given about the final product during development?
The producers and the higher up people always try to make sure everybody is on the same page in the development. We all need to know what we are creating, sure a 3d-guy could get told to create a wrench for something he doesn't have a clue where it should go or what environment it will be in. But that's just bad direction if you ask me :)

Which is considered the "best" developers to work for and which are the "worst".
This is a really tricky question, not sure if I can answer it. It all depends on the studio, generally people dislike publishers, publishers in general are not bad though. It's a bit more pressure but they are the guys that pay the money for the games to get built so yeah. They have the right to demand things from the dev studios. However people only want to do what they love, it's usually not about the money, they just want to feel safe and secure and they'll get by.

Is EA actually evil?
No I wouldn't say that they're evil, it's only business and sometimes things get handled badly but in general they're the guys that supply the money for the games to be made so people should be happy.

Day 1 DLC and stuff like that might look like an evil act but maybe it comes from the desperate need for the studios to make some extra money when half the world are pirating their game? Something to think about maybe. It's hard to break even in AAA-games, stuff like that helps the developers and to create DLC means they need more time to do it, which means more money from the publishers to the studio to create the DLC which means that the devs get to do what they love to a little bit more or it's necessary for the studio to survive.

Hard for sure, it takes a lot of dedication to become a good programmer. Game-programming is probably the trickiest and hardest type of programming. Good luck! Work hard and the industry always need more programmers!

Haha xD Fences are great though, it's like the best way to keep the players in place. You really hate the invisible walls do ya ;) then don't pay me to make fences. Pay me to create big awesome worlds that you guys can play around in.

Well a pre-rendered environment is just that, pre-rendered so what you're doing is pretty much just showing an image on the screen. A proper real-time environment is much more expensive and a lot more accuruate. Colors effect each other, the lighting changes the mood and the colors, shadows will show correctly if you have proper dynamic lighting set up.

Sprites is usually easier to handle, which is also why lots of indie-devs like to do their 2d-stuff with a fixed camera. Bastion is a really good example of that.

I have no experience with 2d so I can't really say for sure, I'd say both are pretty demanding on the artist. But generally, I'd say sprites is easier and cheaper to use than 3d-models.

I was a local teacher in 3d, self-taught mostly. I got my first job by getting to know the right person who helped me in. Networking is soooo important so spend you time around the 3d-forums and other professional artists. It's THE best way to go about it. People won't recommend you unless you're skilled and have the right attitude though! :) so just work hard!

Right now I work regular hours at work, during deadlines they tend to add a couple of hours each day to that time :P And even if I spend a lot of time at work, it's a blast. I love it. Got the greatest co-workers ever.

Well I've spent a year or so and the ones I'm working on now so, yeah. It kinda wears you out a little bit, you become blind to what you do. When you look at the others work then you're amazed because everything feels fresh and nice, other compositions even though they're using the same props, the same trees etc etc. But you definitely become blind to your own work and think it sucks. It's always good to get a friend over to take a proper look and give you good crits on what you need to fix.

Both takes it time to master, when doing 3d it's usually way more technical than painting. Not that painting and stuff isn't technical it's just a different type of mindset you need to have.

The tools are usually a bit tricker to learn when doing 3d. I'd say you need to decide what you want to be. It's really important to specialize, if you want a job easier in the industry I'd go for the 3d-artist position. For a concept artist you need to be absolutely awesome at what you do and it's considered to be one of the hardest jobs to get in the industry.

No tips really, just look around much. Small notes, text scribbles on walls, pictures or sometimes even hidden doors and rooms that can be activated. Or just funny stuff like somebody got killed by a tipped over fridge when reaching for a can on the top

Well if nobody notices it then it's just good for portfolio shots. Usually people don't notice all the detail when they're in action-mode killing enemies. However during the down-times and in-between fighting areas we usually put some more visual flares. Especially when "Framing" the next area.

We always cut corners, video-games does that, you'll always find small tiny visuall glitches in every game if you look close enough. The bigger picture is what matters, we could spend all day just getting everything 100% perfect, however deadlines usually comes in the way.

We like to put in small detail though that people can see before and after action-areas. In action areas we tend to put stuff that can blow up, bottles that brake, crates that smash etc etc.

We always have to keep in budget , it all depends on the engine you're working on and the platforms you work with. PCs will handle lots of stuff fine but the consoles differ a lot from each other. That's why 1st party ps3 games look better than the multi-platform titles. They're tailored for the hardware.

Honestly it might be better to work with an engine that has most settled already and just do your own modifications to show your ability, like unity. don't spend 5 years of your life doing something from scratch , don't re-invint the wheel completely. :) just do a mod and make it better than the original :P

Well breaking in is hard enough, getting into AAA Is usually not that different, it could be easier than getting into a smaller xbla team. Mainly because the bigger the games the more artists or other Devs they'll need. Internships is a great way in, I don't have any I can recommend though!

Well it all depends on what company you work for, some are more corporate than others. Some offices are more laid back, the one I'm in is the latter, lots of laughs , troll faces, street fighter lunch breaks and beers every other night.

Just a bunch of nerds loving all things geeky and what they do for a living :)

Mostly self-taught! An eye for good composition and art in general helps. People just have to realise they need to put in their 10.000 hours to become really good at something. Tryin to stay motivated and be disciplined when learning is the best advice I can give. It's really tough to break in.